Student turnout stabilizes, DAS Eindhoven wins a seat

Voter turnout percentage during this year’s elections for the nine student seats in the university council – 31.55 percent – was more or less the same as last year. Student group DAS won a seat and now has three seats in total. Groep-één׀ESR, the result of a merger at the start of this academic year, held on to a large majority with six seats. Voter turnout of the elections for the Services Council, where there were more candidates than seats for the first time in a long while, was exceptionally high with 51.65. No fewer than 444 members of the administrative and support staff cast their vote.

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photo Han Konings

Naomie Amsing, who will serve as chair of Groep-één׀ESR after this election for another six months, predicted the gain in seats of competitor DAS Eindhoven on Monday already. She isn’t dissatisfied with the result per se, “because with that extra seat, DAS now has three seats in the University Council and consequently more room to accomplish things, which in the end is in the best interest of the entire student community.”

Turnout among students of the election for their nine representatives in the University Council was at 31.55 percent this time, which is just fractionally lower than last year: 31.63 percent. This at least puts an end momentarily to the decline in voter turnout rate, which has been the trend for some years now.

Substantial increase

Voter turnout of the elections for the nine council members of staff faction PUR, which takes place every other year, increased substantially compared to 2017. Turnout percentage was 30.7 at the time, against 37 percent this year. University Council chairwoman Trees Klaver, who was recently reelected for another four-year term, was visibly delighted with this result. Voters had a real choice here as well, because eleven candidates had decided to compete for nine seats. Diana Heijnerman-Douma, veteran council member and secretary at Electrical Engineering, obtained the most votes.

All thirteen seats on the Services Council are now once again occupied, and two candidates will be placed on the reserve list. Marjan van Ganzenwinkel, staff member at the Communication Expertise Center, stood for election for the first time and obtained the most votes: 84 of the 444 votes that were cast over the last two days. That number of 444 represents 51.65 percent of all the members of the administrative and support staff (OBP) who are eligible to vote. It was the second highest turnout percentage this year.

The highest turnout percentage was reached at Built Environment this year: 53 percent of students at that department voted for their representatives in the departmental council. Students at Mechanical Engineering were significantly less enthusiastic for these local elections: only 19.7 percent of them took the trouble to vote, which is the lowest voter turnout score of all departments.

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